Transit users will start paying more Thursday to ride Metrolink and bus, subway and light-rail systems operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is raising fares for the first time in two years. At the MTA, the one-way cash fare will rise from $1.25 to $1.50, a daily pass will go from $5 to $6 and a monthly pass will increase from $62 to $75. Fares will not be raised for students, people with disabilities, Medicare recipients and people who are 62 or older.

After repeated disruptions by protesters from the Bus Riders Union and two arrests, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Thursday unanimously approved a new round of studies for the proposed 710 Freeway extension, including an analysis of alternatives to a tunnel or highway. The protest delayed the vote on the controversial issue for several hours until transit police and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies cleared the MTA board room in downtown Los Angeles of dozens of demonstrators who oppose a transit fare increase set to begin July 1. The group demanded that directors hold further hearings on the fare hike and take a vote on whether to rescind it. Demonstrators effectively shut down the meeting and interrupted a hearing involving the 710 before authorities ordered union members to clear the room.

Public transit systems throughout Southern California are preparing to jack up fares this summer. They could use the extra money — the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority alone is facing a $181-million budget shortfall. But fare hikes aren't the whole solution to public transit's money woes. It's time that the dozens of city- and county-run systems that make up the region's transit network get together and hash out a plan to expand ridership, rather than repeatedly reaching deeper into the pockets of those who already ride the bus. "They need to entice people to leave their cars at home," said Esperanza Martinez, lead organizer for the Bus Riders Union, a public transit advocacy group.

Amid the worst economic downturn since World War II, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning to increase fares for the first time in two years to help offset a $204-million gap in its operating budget for buses and rail systems. The proposed fare hike, which will go into effect July 1, is opposed by the Bus Riders Union, which protested the planned increase Tuesday morning outside the MTA headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Unless the MTA board of directors rescinds the increase, the one-way cash fare will rise from $1.25 to $1.50, a daily pass will go from $5 to $6 and a monthly pass will increase from $62 to $75. Fares will not be raised for people with disabilities, students, Medicare recipients and people who are 62 or older.

Citing poor on-time performance, overcrowding and a shortage of service, several thousand transit riders gave low marks to the bus system run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to a survey released Friday. "The MTA got a D for the overall quality of its bus service," said Esperanza Martinez, an organizer for the Bus Riders Union, an advocacy group that conducted the survey. "People are paying way too much and waiting way too long for a bus that will likely pass them by."

Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew ruled Monday against a lawsuit brought by the Bus Riders Union over fare increases approved last year by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. The Bus Riders Union and the Natural Resources Defense Council had sued the MTA, alleging that the agency should have done an environmental analysis before raising fares because fare hikes usually result in fewer people taking mass transit and more people driving. In a tentative ruling earlier this month, McKnew found that the MTA didn't have to do the study because California law provides exceptions to transit agencies that use fares to pay for operating expenses.

A judge Wednesday refused to grant a temporary restraining order to bar the MTA's fare hikes for bus and rail service, making it likely they will take effect as scheduled Sunday. "We're quite pleased," said Terry Matsumoto, treasurer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Lawyers for the MTA said the agency had spent $200,000 preparing for the changes and is selling bus and rail passes with the new fares this week.

Re "MTA approves steep hikes for bus, rail fares," May 25 The argument that bus fares should be increased boils down to the assertion that bus riders should fund bus services. This ignores the fact that buses are public goods. Buses provide a valuable service to riders, but also to everyone else in Los Angeles. Buses take workers to employment and customers to shops, benefiting both workers and employers, customers and stores. When police or firefighters require additional funds, we do not impose surcharges on store owners or homeowners.

Los Angeles County transit leaders Thursday approved the first across-the-board fare increase in more than a decade, despite emotional testimony from hundreds of bus riders who said they could not afford steep price hikes. The new fares -- which apply to both bus and rail service -- are less than the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's staff had sought but will still increase the amount riders pay significantly over the next two years.